Leo Triplet

[Paul Haese]

This is an image of the Leo Triplet. It was taken with the AG12 which has the ZWO6200MM on it. This combination gives a really good field of view to capture the entire triplet. I have only done this before with a refractor.

I quite pleased with the detail level given the 1.39" per pixel scale. I'm also happy to see the tidal stream of NGC3628 is also visible with the 24 hours of integration.

To spice the galaxies up a little, I took 4 hours of Ha data. Both M66 and M65 showed quite a few Ha regions but NGC3628 did not benefit much with the narrow band data. Of note though is the core bubble of Ha in M65. It was very bright in the Ha data so I gather it is an actual feature of the galaxy. Others might know either way though.

Click here for the larger image.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Good image scale with plenty of detail there Paul What was the F/L?
Nice to see those other tiny spirals in the field too.

[Dave882 (David)]

Amazing capture and great to see those Ha regions featured. This outer arms of m66 are interesting. Not sure ive seen them brought out like this before. Very nice!

[matlud (Mathew)]

Beautiful Paul! You've picked up the faint tidal tail on the Hamburger Galaxy and some nice detail. Are you shooting Bin2 in camera or binning in post?
CS, Mat

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Originally Posted by Rigel003

Good image scale with plenty of detail there Paul What was the F/L?
Nice to see those other tiny spirals in the field too.

HI Graeme. That particular scope is around 1176mm for focal length. The other AG12 runs at 1184mm I think.

Originally Posted by matlud

Beautiful Paul! You've picked up the faint tidal tail on the Hamburger Galaxy and some nice detail. Are you shooting Bin2 in camera or binning in post?
CS, Mat

I have been using bin 2 imaging as it produces the best results for the image scale.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

They are such a cool trio when they fit in the one shot, nice job Paul

I haven't shot one of these galaxies since about 2004

Mike